Danina Kapetanovic serves as the Joint Vice President of Innovation and Chief Health Innovation Officer at the Grand River Hospital, St. Mary’s General Hospital and the University of Waterloo. In this dual leadership role, she spearheads transformation at the intersection of healthcare delivery, academic research, and entrepreneurship. Harnessing the strengths of the vibrant Kitchener-Waterloo health innovation ecosystem, she leads cross-disciplinary teams to advance patient outcomes through innovation across organizational, social, and technological domains.

Previously, she served as the Chief Innovation Officer at the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal (CIUSSS West-Central Montreal). Within the CIUSSS and its hub, Jewish General Hospital, she conceptualised, founded and directed the Connected Health Innovation Hub – OROT which has a mandate to guide the way to the new era of care – a future in which health will be created, managed, and restored wherever the patient is (strategy known as Care Everywhere).

Before joining the CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, Ms. Kapetanovic served as Executive Director of Hacking Health, a global, grass-roots network of innovators committed to creating digital health solutions to benefit citizens, support healthcare systems, and promote economic activity. This network organized 160 hackathons in 63 cities around the world, leading to more than 1,500 innovative projects.

Ms. Kapetanovic also served with the United Nations for close to two decades where she held various leadership positions, spearheading innovation and public-private partnerships resulting in positive and impactful change across the globe. Among her proudest accomplishments is the creation of community care centers across Northern Iraq; development and roll out of a global food assistance strategy targeting pregnant and lactating mothers and children under two, and the establishment of public-private partnership which resulted in creation of specialised food products for treatment of acute and prevention of chronic malnutrition.

Ms. Kapetanovic holds a M.Sc. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Hunter College of City University of New York, a B.A. Honours in Neurolinguistics from McGill University in Montreal, a certificate in Healthcare Innovation from Duke University and a certificate in Development of Entrepreneurship in Life Sciences and Healthcare Technology from Concordia University. She speaks five languages.